Artist: Jeff Shapiro

Jeff Shapiro, NEW YORK
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I ‘look’ with the intent of perceiving the artistic elements of what I am viewing rather than the intellectual dissection of information. To that end, I want to be moved and inspired, and respond to the experiences I encounter.
I approach the process of making as a creative process giving myself the freedom to improvise and discover. I challenge myself to keep the work alive and evolving.
I believe that if I do not approach the work in this way, then the work stagnates and will precipitate the beginning of the end which leads to a slow downhill slide. Though I am predominantly working in the wood fire genre at present, I choose to utilize whatever technique, tool or process necessary to best resolve the finished work.
I challenge myself to be in a place or mental state of ‘abandonment’, devoting more energy to understanding the harmony that should exist between the maker, the concept, material, tools, and processes, and then learning to ‘let go’ rather than try to force something to happen. My recent work is the manifestation of this perception whether it be in tea bowls and sake cups, or solid sculpture.
I respond to the beauty that exists in the imperfections of nature; A torn leaf… a crack in a cement wall… a twisted branch…a shaft of lightning cutting through the night sky, all have the potential to be dimensions of beauty that feed the artistic soul and creative process.

Jeff Shapiro was born in the Bronx, NY in 1949. He presently works and lives in upstate NY with his wife Hinako.  He studied ceramic arts while living in Japan for 9 years from 1973-1981. His work has been exhibited internationally in: Germany, France, Italy, Australia, Switzerland, Canada, England, and Japan. His work can be found in numerous Museum collections including: The Carlo Zauli Museum, Faenza, Italy, The Massachusetts Museum of Fine Art, Boston MA, The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY, The Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY, The Fuller Museum, Brockton, MA. He has given workshops and seminars in many countries around the world, and has built 2 wood fire kilns in Italy.

SOLO & SELECT EXHIBITIONS
2017 Sept. Saratoga Ceramic Art Center, Saratoga, NY
2017 Augen Gallery, Portland,OR
2017 Blue Spiral Gallery, Ashville, NC
2016 The Second Biannual International Ceramic Exhibition, St Cirque, Switzerland
2014 – PS 209 Gallery, Stone Ridge, NY - 3 person exhibition with Martin Puryear and Christopher Kurtz
2014 – Oxford Ceramic Gallery, Oxford, England
2014 – Kakiden Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2014 – Lacoste Gallery, Concord, MA
2014 – St. Sulpice Ceramic Fair, Paris, France
2013 – Kakiden Gallery, Tokyo, Japan - with Claude Champy and TsujimuraShiro
2013 – Galleria Comunale D’ Arte, Faenza, Italy
2013 – St Sulpice Ceramic Fair, Paris, France
2012 – Lacoste Gallery, Concord, MA
2012 – Capazza Gallery, Nancay, France
2012 – Golden Bridge Pottery Gallery, Pondicherry, India
2011 – S.O.F.A. NY, Lacoste Gallery
2011 – Kakiden Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2010 – Tenmaya Gallery, Okayama Japan
2010 – Marianne Heller Gallery, Heidelberg, Germany - 2 person exhibition
with Living National Treasure Isezaki Jun
2010 – Lacoste Gallery, Concord, MA
2010 – Kleinart Gallery, Woodstock, NY
2010 – Yanagi Gallery, NYC, NY - 3 person exhibition with Claude Champy and Tsujimura Shiro
2009 – Aberystwyth, Wales
2008 – Shino exhibition, Girossen, France
2008 – Marianne Heller Gallery, Heidelberg, Germany - with Uwe Loellmann and Isezaki Jun
2007 – Palazzo Bricherasio, Torino, Italy
2007 – SOFA NY, Lacoste Gallery, New York, NY
2007 – Fuller Museum, Brockton, MA
2006 – Lacoste Gallery, Concord,MA - Cross Generational Isezaki lineage
2006 – Dubuque Museum of Art, Dubuque, IA
2003 – La Medusa Exhibition, Este, Italy
2002 – National School of Art, Canberra, Australia
2002 – Ceramic Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2000 – Kuroda Toen Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2000 – Central Gallery, Osaka, Japan
1998 – Kuroda Toen Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1998 – Tenmaya Department Store Gallery, Okayama, Japan
1997 – Tenmaya Department Store Gallery, Okayama, Japan
1996 – Matsuzakaya Department Store Gallery, Nagoya, Japan
1995 – Takashimaya Department Store Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1993 – Takashimaya Department Store Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

COLLECTIONS
Carlo Zauli Museum, Faenza, Italy
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona, CA
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
The Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY
Everson Museum of Art Syracuse, NY
Fuller Museum, Brockton, MA
Currier Museum, Manchester, NH
Boca Raton Contemporary Art Museum, Boca Raton, FL
Arkansas Art Center and The Decorative Arts Museum, Little Rock, AK
Kajima International, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
Mary Burke Collection of Art, New York, NY
The Longhouse Foundation, Easthampton, NY
University Art Collection, State University of New York, New Paltz, NY

COMMISSION
1993 – Large Black Rectangular Planter
The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Japan Gallery, New York, NY

PUBLICATIONS
2016 – Het Grote Boek by Mels BoomDutch publication
2013 – La Revue De La Ceramique et du VerreMarch/April
2013 – Wood Fired Ceramics: 100 Contemporary Artists
2012 – La Revue De La Ceramique et du VerreSept/Oct Issue #186
2012 – 100 Mid Atlantic ArtistsSchiffer Publications
2006 – Forward for “Soda, Clay and Fire”, by Gail Nichols
2006 – Tojiro, Issue #48
2005 – “From Pig Palace to Clay Studio: Building a Kiln and Studio Under
the Tuscan Sky”, Ceramics Technical, Issue #20
2005 – “Food and Vessel: The Japanese Aesthetic of Presentation”, Studio Potter, Vol #33
2005 – “Aesthetics of Wood Firing”, The Log Book”, Issue #21, March 2005
2004 – “Finding One’s Own Voice”, N.C.E.C.A. Journal
2004 – Veranda Magazine, December 2003 Issue, Ceramics Technical
2003 – Ceramics Monthly, March Issue, Front Cover
2003 – Ceramics Art & Perception, Issue #53
2003 – Ceramics Technical, Issue #16
2003 – “21st Century Ceramics in The United States and Canada”
2002 – “The Ceramic Surface”, by Matthias Ostermann
2001 – “American Shino”, by Lester Richter, credit page
2001 – The Wall Street Journal, July Issue
2001 – Ceramics Art and Perception, Issue #44
2000 – The Washington Post, October 19
2000 – “Wood Fired Ceramics – Contemporary Practices”, by Coll Minogue and Robert Sanderson
1999 – “The Spirit of Clay”, by Robert Piepenburg
1998 – Ceramics and Beyond, Dai Ichi Arts Ltd.
1998 – American Craft Magazine, April/May Issue
1997 – Ceramics: Art and Perception, Issue #28
1997 – New York Magazine, March Issue
1997 – Japan Times
1999 – Design Source Book – Ceramics by Edmund De Wall
1996 – “The Best of Pottery”, Quarry Books
1996 – The New York Times, July 28
1995 – “Wood Fired Ceramics”, by Jack Troy
1995 – “Yakimono Sanka – In Praise of Ceramics”, by Robert Yellen
1990 – “Encyclopedia of Ceramics”, Japan Art Publishing Company

TEACHING / LECTURES / WORKSHOPS
2017 Wood Fire NC; Greensboro, NC. Demonstrations and panel discussion
2016 - Workshop at Seward Park Clay Studio Seattle WA
2014 – Presentation at Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England
2014 – Workshop for Stefan Jacob, Zurich, Switzerland
2014 – Workshop for Lisa Hammond, Greenwich, England
2013 – Workshop, St. Sulpice Les Feuliies, France
2013 – Workshop Lutzmannsburg, Austria
2013 – Workshop Zweifalten, Germany
2013 – Studio work in Carlo Zauli studio, Faenza, Italy
2012 – Workshop, Truro Center for The Arts at Castle Hill, MA
2012 – Workshop, Seattle Washington
2012 – Workshop , St. Sulpice Les Feuliies, France
2012 – Workshop, Rome, Italy
2012 – Workshop, Golden Bridge Pottery, Pondicherry, India
2011 – Public discussion with Isezaki Jun, Heidelberg Museum of Contemporary Art, Heidelberg, Germany
2011 – Workshop, Funke Fired Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
2010 – Workshop Clay Art Guild of the Hamptons, West Hampton, N.Y.
2007 – Workshop and Presentation, Centre de Céramique, Montréal, Québec, Canada
2007 – International Juror, Auckland, New Zealand
2007 – Workshop, Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin, New Zealand
2007 – Lecture, “The Romanticist and the Pragmatist”, Ceramics Fair NYC, New York, NY